He was the godfather of the 49ers’ great defenses from 2011 to 2014, their defensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh. The guy the 49ers didn’t promote to head coach after Harbaugh left for Michigan. The one they let get away.

Now, he’s coming to Levi’s stadium for vengeance this Sunday.

He is Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, and he is a contender for the Associated Press’ NFL Assistant Coach of the Year Award. One of the best defensive minds in the NFL, along with LA Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

Although he’s called The Godfather, there’s nothing flashy about Fangio. He’s quiet, always thinking. Always planning his defense. He is easygoing and approachable and, on a football field, almost impossible to figure out. Harbaugh let Fangio run his defense, no questions asked.

And his players treated him like a godfather, with that kind of respect, above and beyond the normal coach. Players such as Justin Smith and Patrick Willis actually referred to Fangio as The Godfather, meaning he’s the one we want leading us into a gunfight.

Under Fangio, the Bears’ defense has forced a league-high 35 turnovers and currently ranks third out of 32 teams in fewest yards allowed. Fangio is on the verge of his fifth season coaching a top-five defense since 2011. He would tie Carroll for having the most top-five defenses in that time.

“Vic’s unique,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Whatever you think you have on him, he has a counter off it.”

Niners should line up Kittle on the right side, then put him in motion so he pinches in Mack, which allows Mullens to roll out to the right. Then Kittle should go right, and give Mullens a target down field.
.
Aaron Lynch has given them some good intel, so KS should do something totally different.
.
Niners should try some trickeration. Flea flickers, quick bubble screens, double reverses.
.
Sure wish the Niners had fired Baalke, and hired Fangio as their HC, and made Tomsula their DC.

One thing that is common to both Fangio’s and Carroll’s schemes are that they are both simple and put a lot of emphasis one execution by individual players, i.e., weak links can be exposed. So the performances of these two schemes may vary from season to season based on the talent level. Neither coaches tweak their schemes much week-to-week. Bellichick’s defense is a good contrast. He may make wholesale changes from week-to-week, including personnel changes, to make sure there are no obvious exploitable matchups, and he takes away the opponent’s main weapon. His defenses outperform their talent level of the players — the defense is greater than the sum of the parts.

As the Fins has shown this season, one can dink and dunk their way past Fangio’s vaunted D and its plethora of talented players into the end zone. Mullens the Mahvellous is the Master of the Dink and Dunk. the Bears D can also have brain cramps on the road — line in the Giants game. Will not be shocked if the Niners pull off a win in a close game in the fourth quarter.

Mood,
Good observations with their contrasting styles but I don’t think it is that easy to dink and dunk your way down the field. Additionally, I think currently Fangio is better than Bill. He has produced excellent results in terms of takeaways which makes it very hard to win by dinking your way down the field, especially if the bears offense has any success at all.
Note, one of the main benefits of these simplistic scheme defenses is that hurry-up offenses have little effect on them. They can just line up and play and blown coverage’s are kept to a minimum. That is one thing that has been very frustrating and confusing regarding our defense this year.

Other morons are those who make political posts on this and other NFL related sites. Whether you like it or not, the majority of NFL fans are sick of politics, especially the CK brand of ignorance and blather. Stick to football or suck your thumb and take a long nappy. And leave the rest of us alone.

When Fangio was the DC in Houston I thought he was absolutely terrible. The defense was awful and Fangio’s player evaluation was awful. Or so I thought. Fangio lobbied the Texans hard to trade up in the draft to get Jason Babin so the team traded 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks to move up to the 27th pick to select Babin. Unfortunately, Babin was a huge bust his first few years in the league. He drifted around but ultimately made a pro bowl and had a decent career. He certainly wasn’t worth the cost in draft picks but I put that more on Charley Casserly than Fangio. When Fangio followed Harbaugh from Stanford, I thought it was the worst possible hire. But I was wrong. He’s an excellent coach. I have heard through the coaching grapevine that Fangio is quite wealthy through a side business he runs in real estate investment. Not sure if that’s true but it came from a very good source. Fangio is sort of a secret renaissance man.

Fangio is an excellent coach who maximizes defensive talent. But defense is all about talent and without talent, he ain’t much:
As Grant mentioned, before Bears added Mack, they were still ranked in the top 10, albeit in the 9, 10 and 13 range in various yards, points and takeaways (YPT), respectively.
Before they added Eddie Jackson (now PFF rated the best safety in the league), and Prince Amukamara (rated top-10 CB), they were ranked 12, 15 and 24 (YPT), respectively.
Before they added Akiem Hicks in 2016, Fangio’s D was ranked 14, 20, and 28 (YPT), respectively.
See a pattern here?

Wild how good players make coaches better. It’s also true that good coaches make good players better. Criticizing a guy who has more success when he has talented players to run the systems doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It’s like saying Bill Walsh wasn’t all that great until he had Joe Montana or Bill Belichick wasn’t all that great until he had Tom Brady.

Seb,
Looks like the old Candlestick Park field conditions followed the team to Levi’s.
The last glory era for the 49ers were created at the Stick. Still waiting for great memories to be made at Levi’s Stadium.
2019 is a good time to start.

AES, since the game starts at 5 pm, I wonder if the moisture in the turf will be high, since there are cloudy days forecast today and Saturday, so little drying out will occur. Hope they put some fans out to help dry the field, and maybe even a helicopter.
.
Hope springs eternal. With JG and JM coming back from injuries, and possibly a solid draft, the Niners may be poised to return to relevance.

I recall Jim Harbaugh having ownership remove the original turf from Levi’s because it was not strong enough to withstand the rigors of football.
I might be wrong, but I believe the ownership had the field resodded by using the same Sod company – Livingston Sod company.
We’ll see how the field holds up un Sunday.

Yup. Always understood why they parted with Harbaugh. Anyone who does that to their boss would be ass out of a job too. I just always hated their plan to replace him. I think they planned to get rid of him a long time before they actually did it. But you planned all that time and your idea was Tomsula? wtf

JH knew he was going to be fired, so he did not care.
.
Just payback for getting stabbed in the back by Baalke so much.
.
Jed chose a suit over a coach, with predictable results.
.
Jed should have fired Baalke then, too, and hired Fangio as the HC to provide continuity. Fangio would not work with Baalke because he saw what happened to JH. The rest is history.

I think the original problems occurred because the turf was so new, and the roots did not have time to thatch together. They now have had several years for fields of sod to have grown, using their special blend, or strain of grass.
.
I noticed that it looked like the center of the field had been replaced, and I think that was the area that had the most slippage.
.
Being a person who knows a tiny bit about turf, I think they should put down some absorbent material, like the dark brown stuff I see on the synthetic fields. It might help in the traction, and the excess moist material could be removed with blowers, then picked up along the side lines.
.
I hope they work hard to make the field safe. Maybe Witherspoon slipped on a slick area. Sure looked like he was not hit, but I may be incorrect. I hope no Niners, and opponents, too, become injured from slippery turf.

Fangio has gotten the Bears defense to play well, but also consider the opponents. They played the Pats, Bills Dolphins and Jets. Only the Pats have a good offense. They played the Bucs, Giants and Cards, all struggling teams. They played 5 games in their division. Both the Packers and Vikings have regressed, and the Lions have weaknesses.
.
So, they have dominated some weak teams, with a ton of take aways. If the Niners do not turn the ball over, use the short pass to keep the sticks moving, and contain Trubisky, the Niners have a decent chance to win.

Those guys he’s throwing round are also generally much bigger than he is too.

I expect he’ll be well below the desired length for a DL. But I also think he’ll play more like an on ball LB and wide 9 DE than a true DE in the NFL, giving him a bit more space to beat the OL prior to engaging.

A player with Smith’ talent will be on someones roster next year. Some team is going to be happy that they weren’t persuaded by ideal NFL position measurables.
Btw, at what number do you think he is drafted?

Fangio is a great DC. A shame he’s never been given a shot as a HC anywhere.

If the 49ers had been able to get Fangio last season as DC I wonder how the D would be fairing? Two of the main ingredients to Fangio’s success has always been his front 7 and discipline of his players. With no real edge players at the 49ers and young guys making lots of mental errors in a pretty simple scheme, would his D be better or worse than Saleh’s I wonder?

I’d like to know the 4 games that you were referring to that the defense lost for the team.

Off the bat, I can name two. Green Bay and NYG. Defense let both teams march down the length of the field to score winning points in the final seconds. A similar loss was 2nd AZ game. You could also put the LAC game in that category, defense wasn’t able to protect 4th qtr lead.

Sounds like a number of posters believe that quality of a defense is all about the quality of the players and the coaches don’t really matter. So, if that is true, how does one determine if the DC and his staff are any good? Or is that something that can only be determined if you have insider information?

I’d say that talented players are necessary but not sufficient for creating a great defense. A very good and experienced coach like Fangio can develop talent and put the players in a position to succeed. A mediocre coach like Greg Manusky will harness the talented players into a competent defense (e.g., Niners 2010 D) but the D probably would not reach its potential.

Greatly increasing the likelihood? How do you quantify that?
If you are good to use analytics for starting inside the 50, you better include penalties, wind, time of possession and opponent red zone defense.

Prime, penalties play a part, they always do, especially in Red Zone whether they are defensive or offensive penalties.

Wind is really not a factor though. Time of possession can be a factor, but it isn’t always. I think on 2 wins we lost the time of possession and still won. RZ efficiency is a greater factor in deciding who wins but it goes along with what Jack said.

It isn’t pure coincidence. There’s always more to the picture but starting field position certainly is a large factor in the wins.

If you are saying being inside the 50 increases chances of getting 3, you have to account for weather, most likely factor in football is wind.
Then if you use that reasoning, how does it differ from indoor to outdoor and time of season.
Point is wind, weather, and location have to be added to the argument.

Niners need turnovers. Luckily, Trubisky has shown a tendency to be careless with the ball. In the Rams game, he threw 3 picks. However, the Rams ran for 194 yards, so the Niner run defense needs to be stout. Howard and Cohen are a devastating one-two punch. Hope Wilson and Breida can get the run game going.
.
Niners should look to Ronnie Lott for inspiration. Niner defenders would hold up the ball carrier, and Lott would bludgeon them, separating him from the ball. Of course, it needs to be done with the shoulder pad, and no head hunting, but the Niners should take Brent Jone’s advice. They should not be hungry for a win, they need to be starved for a win. Likewise, they should not be hungry for a turnover, they need to be starved for a turnover.

Tim Ryan says the Bears do not stack the box, rushes 4, and puts 7 in coverage. Niners should line up Wilson deep in the I with Juice lead blocking, and let him build up a head of steam before hitting the weakness in the line of scrimmage. The Niners should try to ram it down their throats.
.
They should line up Celek or Kittle which ever side Mack lines up on, and chip block him.
.
I hope they use Juice more in the passing game.
.
Stopping Cohen should be their main priority. He is a threat to score each time he touches the ball.

Prime, I guess they think I am so powerful, they try to attack me, thinking it makes me diminished, but it says more about you than it does about me.
.
Most others do not waste their time haunting another’s posts.
.
However, since you are such a waste of time, you think catfishing burner accounts make you look smart.

I hope he looks at how Rodgers did, throwing those quick slant passes. They seemed very effective. Still, the Niners need to establish a running game, or they will jump those routes.
.
Steve Young said that KS should game plan like the Rams, and copy their schemes, because they are so effective. He said it is a passing league right now,and sure wished he could have played when the QB could not be touched.

Climb every mountain,
Search high and low
Follow every byway
Every path you know
.
Root for the Niners,
Cheer, lose or win
Follow every contest
Til they get a ring.
.
Dig in the mountains,
Pan in the stream
Follow every rainbow.
Find a rich gold seam.
.
Climb every mountain,
Search for the Gold
Play Niner football,
Win by being Bold.

To those who do not think coaching is important.
.
BP- ‘Bryant can take his’n and beat your’n, then take your’n and beat his’n.’
.
Niners do have talent, and it is nice to see the coaches utilizing them properly these last 2 games.
.
However, having elite talent, coupled with competent coaching, is hard to beat.

TrollD, Juan has coached, so he knows the first rule in coaching.
.
‘There are 2 types of coaches. Them that’s fired, and them that’s going to be fired.’- BP.
.
Fool on the hill? I assigned you with that designation, but you just like to parrot that.

Niners have taken 2 of 3 from the Bears over the last 3 consecutive seasons. And those were some pretty awful Niner teams. Both teams are better this season, but Niners are going to make it 3 of 4. Niners 16, Bears 13.

Washington would rather lose without Kaep than win with Kaep.
.
Glad they are out of the playoffs. They do not deserve to be in it.
.
If Mariota is out, they should sign Kaep. Gabbert will only pull a Gabbert.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Inside the 49ers: Grant Cohn

I cover the San Francisco 49ers year-round for The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa. Argue with me, agree with me, or just read the posts and follow the conversation. I've been a contributor to several other regional and national sports websites, and I also write two online columns a week for pressdemocrat.com, which are posted on this site as well.